Monday, June 18, 2012

Summer Drag Week XXIV

Mon - 0hr

Tues - 68min/ 7.5m/ 1800' - SoMo (south mountains) - Headed up past Upper Shoals Falls, trying to run as much of the wet steps and rocks as possible.  Once I reached the main Upper Falls Trail, I began incorporating a ridgeline fartlek.  This involves running all the uphills hard at slightly faster than tempo pace, and then relaxing at recovery pace on the downhills and flats.  This workout kinda combines hills repeats and fartlek running because the hills are variable. After doing that over the two miles of Upper Falls trail, I turned down Shiny Trail and descended back down to the car.  The goal was to hammer it down, but the legs weren't turning over quite right so I backed off and just ran all the ups hard.  Soaked the legs in the Jacob Fork River afterwards and about stepped on a snake when I was getting out.  

Wed - 70min/ 7m/ 1500' - Crowders - It was hot!  Went up Pinnacle via Turnback & Pinnacle.  Did a short  half mile out and back on Ridgeline and decided it was too hot to climb back up that.  Returned to the visitor center by Pinnacle, then did the loops of Fern and Lake to finish off the day.  Wasn't feeling great today, but that was attributed to the heat and yesterdays hard effort.  Hannah and I grilled out steaks at the park afterwards.  It was a nice day, other than the heat.

Thurs - 48min/ 5.1m/ 0' - Maiden Track - I wasn't really feeling like traveling to get to a trail, so I opted to head out to the Maiden High School track right down the road to do some much neglected speedwork.  Warmed up with 1.3 miles barefoot on the grass then did four 800's with 400 rest jogs in between.  I tried to be quicker on each successive lap trying to reach a 3:05 last 800.  That didn't really happen although I did get faster on each lap.  The times were as follows:  3:35, 3:27, 3:17, 3:12.  I guess my legs just aren't used to producing any speed in them anymore.  Just 6 months ago I was doing consecutive sub 3 800's.  Oh well, it's been awhile and the body is still feeling a bit weak.  Really got to start working speed back into the training.

Fri - 0hr - lazy

Sat - 1hr49min/ 11.5m/ 1500' - Lake Norman - The legs were really not popping today and the whole run felt like a drag.  Ran all of Laurel Trail and then finished the day with ~2 miles on the Hawk Loop.  No pop at all.

Sun -  72min/ 8m/ 500' - Triple Lakes - Was planning on running 15ish mile figure 8 loop up on the watershed trails in Greensboro before heading back home, finishing the last 7 with a headlamp, but the looming 2 hour drive and the late hour deterred me from doing so.  I felt better than yesterday, but this run was a bit frustrating.   My pace didn't seem in tune with my effort level.  Maybe it was just the heat and the low light conditions?  Either way, kinda disappointed.

Totals =

Time - 6hrs7min
Distance - 39.1 miles
Vert -   5300'

The feeling of fatigue has mostly subsided and now all tiredness feels directly related to the heat and humidity.  I really do not see how the majority of people like running in the summer so much.  I'll take sub 60 degree temps almost all year round.  My running average of 8 hours a week has finally gotten into the 7's and its hard to perceive getting out of the 7's during the summer, unless you are about to head out to the Rockies and the Sierras in couple of weeks!  And I will be!  Hopefully, I'll be getting plenty of time on my feet while on this 3 week road trip.  I'll be posting a pre-road trip post in the coming weeks outlining the plans, but I'll give you just hint of a few running destinations that are planned which are:  La Luz, Marin Headlands, Kings Canyon, Zion, San Juans, Sawatch, and more.  Hopefully, I'll acclimate well once we get out there and to help with that I have a few runs planned the week prior to our departure that will get me about as high (elevation wise) as I can in the Apps and include some big, long, continuous climbing.  It is going to be hot through.   

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